“CHCDIV001 Work with Diverse People” is a unit of competency taught as part of many courses at Charter and prepares students with the skills and knowledge that is required to work closely and respectfully with people from the diverse social and cultural groups that make up multicultural Australia. Charter sees this as a crucial element of all our training, as our students will soon be working with aged patients from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, whose special needs they will then better understand.
A class of students from the Individual and Ageing Support Certificate course recently decided to put into action what they were learning in this unit, holding a Cultural Festival at our school in North Sydney CBD.
Our main training room was instantly turned into a vibrant multicultural community. Encouraged by their trainer, Adrian Domingo, who also acted as the community Mayor representing the Philippine community, students from the class showcased four other unique cultures - China, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia.
Students in each cultural group presented the countries that they represented using a combination of illustrated video presentations about the history, culture, population, economy and important cultural beliefs and festivals.
For the hungry guests, no doubt the high point was the food that had been prepared by each group, to illustrate the cuisine of each country. There was (包子) Baozi from China, Tumpeng nasi kuning from Indonesia which we learned was only prepared once a year or for important festivals, papaya salad from Thailand prepared while we
watched and kangaroo and fish&chips from Australia.
The festival was voted a great success, which was illustrated by the fact that there was very little food left at the end of the night!